PDA as a remote controller - A few months back I lamented that it would be cool if my Palm could control my various electronic appliances. I believe it was Jenny that told me I could if I had a Sony Clie. Recently I got a Clie, and discovered the joys of using it to control the various TV's in my house. But, alas, it didn't work on my TiVo or the DVD player. Then I discovered OmniRemote by Pacific Neotek, which has some software that lets you use various PDAs that use the PalmOS to control appliances. It is "trainable" so presumably you can get it to control almost anything. The site has an extensive FAQ section (sorry no links to internal pages) that answers most questions.
You can download an evaluation version that works for 15 days in some limited way to test it out, and then if it does you can buy the full version for $24.95. My Clie uses the new Version 5 of the PalmOS so I don't think it will work with that device yet, but it looks like they are working on getting that fixed. But it supposedly works with all Palm PDAs. I guess I could try it with my Treo, but something tells me not to try this. There is a discussion group that seems to have a lot of good information about what is possible. Looks like some people have problems and others swear it works. So there you have it. If you are interested check it out and let me know what you find.
11:28:39 PM
Law Blogs on Parade - I see that Howard is having his photo taken for the upcoming ABA Journal article on law blogs. I spoke to Jason Krause, who is the author of that article, awhile back about law blogs and what they might mean to the legal profession (short answer: I don't really know). I'm glad to see the ABA Journal covering this topic though, and clearly they need to focus on blogs like Howard's. I suspect that they will also mention Glenn Reynolds and Eugene Volokh, because they are high profile lawyer (actually, law professor) bloggers.
I hope the ABA Journal article prominently highlights other lawyer bloggers like Marty Schwimmer, or Michael Fox. Marty is a trademark law specialist with a great Radio blog that has an XML feed, and Michael is an employment law specialist in Austin, Texas (he needs to get that RSS/XML thing going though). Getting a bevy of speciality law blogs into the mix is where the rubber meets the road.
It's nice to have Howard, and Glenn and Eugene following the overarching legal issues of the day. But I think in the next year we are going to see a bevy of specialty law blogs. In fact, I have already started re-tooling the law blog outline to add what I perceive to be the true speciality blogs that are devoted to a particular legal area. I recently messed up the law blog outline and had to recreate it from a good, but not completely current, backup. So, if I left you off the list, let me know and I'll cheerfully add you back to the specialty law area.
Oh, just in case it isn't obvious, this site is not what I consider a true law blog. When I first started it I talked about legal issues because it seemed that there was a dearth of lawyer bloggers and there was a demand for law blogging. Now that void has been more than adequately filled so I will endeavor to cover things other than pure legal issues (although I'm sure I will pipe up with some rants here and there). My interest is more in the area of "what effect is the emerging technology of things like the Internet, and pervasive access to it, going to do to our society?" And what is law's role in helping society make the best use of these new technologies?
The legal system in this country has been increasingly burdened by stupid lawsuits that clog the system and make it harder for people with legitimate claims to get what they deserve. Technology can help unclog the system, or it can add to the mayhem. Not everyone has a vested interest in unclogging the system or in making it more efficient. But even having the desire to use technology in a beneficial way doesn't mean you are going to take the right path, or that you will achieve success. Anyway, you get the idea of where this blog is coming from. I like technology and would like to see it used to improve our lives, including the legal system. So that's my story. And I'll try to stick to it.
12:24:18 PM
Technology Anthropologists - Jenny has an insightful post about the power of video games as an incentive for her neighbors to upgrade their PC. Jenny should be the Chair of the Department of Technological Anthropology here in the University of Blogland. I want to join the faculty, and hope to hone my observational skills so that I too can become a "technology anthropologist," because I love watching people as they come to terms with the technology that is foist upon them at ever increasing rates of speed.
This Christmas I gave a wireless router/access point to a couple of friends of mine that live together. He's a lawyer and she is a big honcho at a major PR firm. I figured she would take to the world of wireless like a duck to water because she travels constantly and therefore works extensively from her laptop. I could never have forseen the thing standing between the duck and its water.
I installed the wireless router, and tested it so that wasn't the problem. She had a Belkin wireless card for the laptop, and I explained that she would just have to put the disk in and let it do its thing and she would be able to get going pretty easily. A couple of days later she called to say she was having trouble installing the driver for the wireless card. No problem I swung by the house to see what the problem was. I was surprised to see that she had the exact same Dell laptop that I had. I naturally assumed it had the Windows 2000 operating system because when I bought that laptop about 3 years ago that's what it automatically came with.
As she handed it to me I asked what operating system it had. She said she didn't know (it surprises me how many people have no idea what operating system their computer uses). I'm not criticizing people who don't know their operating system; I'm just surprised at how many people don't know. Anyway, I thought maybe it had Windows 98, but I would never have guessed that it had Windows 95. Well, too bad, I told her. The wireless card wasn't compatible with Windows 95. I don't know of any wireless cards that are compatible with Windows 95.
But forget about wireless cards, who uses Windows 95 anymore? Uh, apparently a lot of people. And this is even more mind-boggling than not knowing about what operating system you have. I know of several law firms, large and reputable ones, that still have many, many computers running Windows 95. High profile firms with well appointed office space, adorned with expensive furniture and beautiful works of art. And there behind the expensive, imported wood paneling are computers lurching and hiccuping under the strain of marginal processing power, and running an operating system with the stability of a nauseated drunkard on high-wire. I would love to be able to walk through those offices and silently observe the inefficiency. This, my friends, is what a technology anthropologist should be able to do.
Yes, just as Jenny is interested in following the adventures of her friends with their new computer, I am interested in what will happen with my friend. She has put in a call to her IT person and will no doubt prevail in getting an improved operating system installed on her laptop. Then she will begin to experience the joys of wireless connectivity. Eventually, we will all experience this and take it for granted. Yes, William Gibson is right, the future is here but it's not evenly distributed.
